after the doctors appt i had today i figure id hit the boynton beach goodwill for a quick peek, i found a realistic 999 RTR deck, still in the box, got it for $10. when i got it home i descoverd that in the box was two Rtr tapes with the machine but its obvious the deck has been used and is not NOS. but thats ok cause its rare to find one in the box. when i got it home i discoverd it dosent work :( it sounds like there is something loose rattling around inside the cabinet and it wont spin, probubly needs a belt. its a very cheap chinsey deck and i have far better, but still a neat little score. the thing is in incredibly good condition, i just wish it worked.

i had run across one of those in the past when i was servicing consumer electronics, after the initial repair (i had to replace a rubber drive tire that was directly attached to the end of the motor shaft), i tested it out with both low end & older tape as well as some of the newer Maxell tapes & i found it to do a pretty good job of recording & playback. i found that it works best with the old Scotch 202 & it even does a pretty good job with Scotch 111 tape. my guess is that it was a budget priced tape recorder designed for the use of the "budget" priced tape that was widely available at that time. Shamrock (Ampex) & Scotch 111 was widely available at that time. Radio Shack offered Concertape, Which was the equivalent of Shamrock / Irish & they were made by Ampex.